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When a historic college campus in Northcentral Pennsylvania required extensive repairs to its buried infrastructure, school officials turned to GPRS to help them keep the project on time, on budget, and safe.
Over a month, a team of GPRS Project Managers and support staff fully located and mapped the buried utilities of the 174-acre Mansfield University Campus of Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania, creating accurate as-builts that assisted in the safe and efficient repair of the school’s buried steam pipes and other underground infrastructure.
GPRS team members who worked on the project included: Business Development Manager Isaiah Runkle, Area Manager Sam Hart, and Project Managers Tommy Tann, Michael Folkenroth, Cole LaMacchia, Luis Castro, Stamatis Eleftheriou and Ngoc Nguyen.
“We were going seven days a week, non-stop,” Nguyen said. “…It started out with them asking us to do as much as we could, and then they eventually just wanted everything mapped…”
About Mansfield University
Mansfield University has gone by many names since it was founded as the Mansfield Classical Seminary in 1857. It became Mansfield University in 1983, when it joined Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education.
On July 1, 2022, Mansfield integrated with Bloomsburg and Lock Haven universities to form Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania: a single, comprehensive university with multiple campuses, which according to its website strives “to expand high-quality, affordable academic opportunities to support the needs of all learners.”
Mansfield University’s campus is carved out of the mountainous landscape of Northcentral Pennsylvania. The uneven terrain makes locating and mapping buried utilities particularly challenging. Fortunately, GPRS’ nationwide footprint allowed us to deploy a large group of our SIM-certified field team members to tackle the project.
“We’re talking about close to eight miles a day, all on an incline,” Nguyen said.
When conducting a utility locate, GPRS Project Managers primarily deploy two different pieces of technology: ground penetrating radar (GPR) and electromagnetic (EM) locating.
GPR scanners emit radio waves into the ground, then detect the interaction between those waves and any buried materials like utility lines or underground storage tanks (USTs). These interactions are displayed in a readout as a series of hyperbolas, which vary in size and shape depending on what kind of material was located.
GPRS Project Managers go through extensive training to be able to interpret the data collected with GPR to tell you what was located and provide an approximate depth for each located object.
EM locators are the perfect complement to GPR scanning when conducting utility locates.
Rather than locating buried objects, EM locators detect the electromagnetic signals radiating from metallic pipes and cables. These signals can be created by the locator’s transmitter applying current to the pipe, or from current flow in a live electrical cable. They can also result from a conductive pipe acting as an antenna and re-radiating signals from stray electrical fields (detected by the EM locator functioning in Power Mode) and communications transmissions (Radio Mode).
Signals are created by the current flowing from the transmitter which travels along the conductor (line/cable/pipe) and back to the transmitter. The current typically uses a ground to complete the current. A ground stake is used to complete the circuit through the ground.
By combining the strengths of GPR and EM locating, along with our industry-leading training program, GPRS provides 99.8% accurate utility locating data to help prevent costly and potentially dangerous subsurface damage during your excavation projects.
In addition to mapping Mansfield University’s buried infrastructure, GPRS also conducted CCTV Video Pipe Inspections of the campus’ storm and sanitary sewer lines to provide a more comprehensive understanding of these critical utilities.
VPI is a sewer inspection service that uses industry-leading remote video cameras to assess conditions and prevent problems in sanitary and storm sewer, and lateral pipelines. Our NASSCO-certified Project Managers locate clogs, identify cross bores, find structural defects & damages, and conduct lateral sewer inspections to help you plan repairs, maintain your system integrity, and mitigate risk.
“VPI was used to locate the storm and sanitary lines on site to provide a map of how the overall storm and sanitary systems runs through the site, what connects to them, and where they eventually leave the site and tie into the public sewer system,” said GPRS Project Manager Stamatis Eleftheriou.
When school officials saw how quickly GPRS was locating and mapping the campus’ buried infrastructure, they requested we extend our scope to include clearing the location of planned soil borings at the university’s football field.
Because soil boring can cause a drill rig to encounter a buried utility – or lead to the creation of cross bores if trenchless technology is used – it’s vital that all buried utilities in the project area are mapped before ground is broken to protect both the underground infrastructure and the workers who are breaking ground.
As GPRS located and mapped Mansfield University’s buried infrastructure, the data we collected was uploaded into SiteMap® (patent pending), our infrastructure mapping software application. Accessible 24/7 from any computer, tablet or smartphone, SiteMap serves as a single source of truth for the accurate, field-verified data you need to plan, design, manage, dig, and ultimately, build better.
GPRS’ proven methodology and technology, and the tireless work ethic of our field team members helped Mansfield University Intelligently Visualize The Built World® while keeping their repairs on time, on budget, and safe.
What can we help you visualize?
Frequently Asked Questions
What type of informational output does GPRS provide when conducting a utility locate?
Our Project Managers flag and paint our findings directly on the surface. This method of communication is the most accurate form of marking when excavation is expected to commence within a few days of service.
GPRS also uses Real-Time Kinematic Positioning (RTK) to collect data points of findings. We use this data to generate a plan, KMZ file, satellite overlay, or CAD file to permanently preserve results for future use. GPRS does not provide land surveying services. If you need land surveying services, please contact a professional land surveyor. Please contact us to discuss the pricing and marking options your project may require.
Can GPR be used to verify known measurements?
We can use GPR to cross-check the measured depth and location of a located utility with existing as-built plans to verify the accuracy of plans.
What are the Benefits of Underground Utility Mapping?
Having an updated and accurate map of your subsurface infrastructure reduces accidents, budget overruns, change orders, and project downtime caused by dangerous and costly subsurface damage.
